[Team One] Two Bits
~600 words of an MCU fic I'm working on, hinted steve/bucky. G-rated
“I didn't expect to see you here.” Sam stepped out onto the balcony. “Figured you’d be inside talking to that photo of Steve on your nightstand.”
He saw Bucky’s mouth flinch up into a grin. “It’s not like he’d talk back. Besides, we’re getting the real one back soon, yeah?”
“That’s the plan.” Sam stood next to him, staring up at the dark New York sky. “Did you get to see stars like this back then? Growing up in the city?”
“Nah…sometimes?” Bucky tilted his head. “I suppose it was sorta like how it is now. Not as many people so not as many lights. But it was still the middle of Brooklyn.”
Sam hummed in acknowledgement.
“I remember-” Bucky cut himself off and Sam looked over in interest.
“Yeah?”
“I think we were in France- or maybe Germany. I don’t- I was with Steve and the others.”
“The Howling commandos?”
“Yeah…” Bucky’s smile slowly turned nostalgic. “It was warm enough we didn’t have to light a fire to keep warm, so we just bunked down for the night. Gabe and Morita were discussing mythology associated with the stars or something. Steve was..”
Here Bucky looked down, his expression nothing but fond and Sam wondered how in the hell he had missed Barnes’ obvious love for Steve for so long.
“Steve was laying on his back trying to map out those stars. It seemed a fruitless effort. I told him so. It’d take a hundred years to even try. And even then they’d move every night!” Bucky turned his grin on to Sam. “You know what he’d said?”
“Something stupid, I’m sure.”
“He’ said that he would stop Earth’s rotation just to try.” Bucky laughed quietly.
“So I guess he wasn’t big on Earth Sciences then.” Sam whisted. “Pretty sure stopping the rotation of earth would like… cause something to explode.”
Barnes looked over waith a raised eyebrow.
“Hey man, I’m a soldier, not a scientist. You’d have to ask Pym or Shuri or someone.”
Bucky chuckled. “I told him that, after the war, we’d find someplace where he could stare at the stars all he wanted. Take all the time in the world to draw them out.”
“And what would you do?”
“Watch his six.” Bucky shrugged. “Always been my job.”
“And he watches yours.”
“... Yeah.”
His answer was quiet and soft.
“You gonna tell him?” Sam asked, his voice equally quiet. “When we get them all back, you’re gonna tell him, right?”
“I-” Bucky sighed. “Yeah. Even if- I’m still not who I was, I want to tell him.”
“No one is who they were 5 years ago, or seventy, or heck, even just a year ago. Steve sure aint the guy you know in the 40’s right? Even post serum?”
“He’s still the stubborn idiot who never knows when to back down from a fight,” Bucky’s protest was automatic, instinctive- Sam knew that, no matter what happened, Bucky would always see Steve that way.
But he also knew that Steven would always see Bucky as the guy who was wade into any danger Steve found himself in.
“But I get what you’re saying,” Bucky sighed. Then he raised a hand to run a hand through his hair. “Maybe I should get a haircut.”
Sam smirked. “Wanna clean up nice for your best guy?”
Bucky laughed. “Yeah.”
“Good. We don’t have much time though and I am no good with scissors. Let’s go find Wanda, she might be able to help. You could use a shave too.”
“Shave and a haircut huh, sounds like the start of a two-bit joke.”
“What?”
“Oh, c’mon, it’s not that old!”
Next up in Nichi with "Oh, c'mon, it's not that old!" I'll message you on discord!